Letisha and I participated in the qualifying round of the event, and we argued against the notion that ‘sports people should NOT be role models’, so we argued that they should. We competed against Ark Putney and it was extremely intense and nerve racking, but at the same time so enjoyable and pretty motivating when we were able to catch the opposition out!

We were given feedback from three to four judges – all of whom were from universities such as Cambridge and Oxford, or of high-ranking professions. One of the best pieces of feedback I was given was that it was evident and lovely to see that I was passionate about my topic, and we both gave more direct answers to questions from the floor.

We went on to win this debate and Cassie and Juma then had the tough question regarding three-parent IVF treatment. They were told they worked extremely well as a team, and Yasmin, Jhannai, Letisha and I had the job of asking difficult questions in order to make it harder for the opposition to consistently make a clear argument.

I must admit it was very close and the judges seemed to find it very difficult to make a final decision, but in the end it was decided that...BDA are going to the regionals in March 2014!

It was an amazing evening and I’m sure we would all highly recommend participating in such competitions, because you meet new people and learn quite a lot, and you are also given a rare opportunity to voice your opinions on topics you may not typically think about.

We definitely made Ms Stone proud so hopefully we can make everyone else proud in the next rounds!